One of CPR's Royal Hudsons (see earlier post) hauling an excursion train through Howe Sound in British Columbia in the early 1970s. This particular loco apparently was used on Royal Trains, including a tour by Queen Elizabeth II.

A billboard in Kapiti Road protesting Mayor Rowan and her lackeys' intention to spend many millions of dollars of ratepayers' money on installing totally unnecessary water meters for every house - the Kapiti Coast isn't outback Australia!

The smaller statements say: "It's an insult to the people of Kapiti to ignore our petition". "Bring on Super City" [a reference to the plan to amalgamate all local authorities in the region] and "KCDC = Korrupt Conning Dishonest Clowns"

The Google stat counter has now clicked over 500,000 pageviews since June 2010, a lot more than we ever anticipated (the number between May 2009 and then isn't known but probably adds another 10,000). At the present rate the next milestone of a million should be reached before the end of the year.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Now engine number 201 on the Texas State Railroad line, this 4-6-0 was built in
1901 by the A. L. Cooke Locomotive Works for freight service on the Texas & Pacific Railway.

In 1949, after 48 years of hard service, the Texas & Pacific sold number
316 to the Paris & Mt. Pleasant Railroad, a T. & P. subsidiary. In 1951
the locomotive was saved from the scrappers' torch by a remarkable lady who purchased the loco and, with help from the T.
& P., donated it to the city of Abilene in honor of its 75th anniversary as a city. The venerable engine remained on
display in Abilene at the Oscar Rose Park for many years, wearing the number 75
to symbolize the 75th Jubilee of the city.

In 1974 the citizens of Abilene donated the locomotive to the
newly formed Texas State Railroad State Historical Park. After extensive repair
and refurbishing the engine was again rolling down the rails to thrill a new
generation of train passengers, deep in the heart of the East Texas piney
woods.

It's apparent that British officials are considering everything when it comes to the potential for Muslim terrorist attacks on the London Olympics and that memory is still strong of what happened at the Munich Olympics 40 years ago.

The Ministry of Defence
says it is evaluating sites for surface-to-air missiles for the Olympic
Games, and could place them at residential flats. Residents at an estate in east London have received a leaflet saying soldiers could be placed there during the Games.

It says part of an air defence system might be based at a water tower on the estate, where 700 people live.
A spokesman said the MoD had not yet decided whether to deploy ground based air defence systems during the Games.

The leaflet states that members of the Armed Forces will be
at the location for a military exercise in early May for between five
and seven days, between 2 and 7 May. It goes on to say that there will be a "major national
exercise" from 2 to 10 May to test the Armed Forces' capabilities to
help the police provide security during the Olympics.And if the government decides to use the missiles during the
Games, then the soldiers could be "operationally deployed for a period
of up to two months this summer".

The MoD also says in the leaflet that the missiles will be
manned by "fully trained, professional soldiers", will not pose a hazard
to residents and the missiles "will only be authorised for active use
following specific orders from the highest levels of government in
response to a confirmed and extreme security threat".

The document also states that "having a 24/7 Armed Forces and
police presence will improve your local security and will not make you a
target for terrorists".

You'll need to watch
it more than once to see all of the action; it all happens in 10 seconds. Note the distance of the clouds from the airport.

Three things to watch:

First the tail of the aircraft as the lightning bolt hits the vertical
stabilizer (it happens fast)

Second view, watch the nose of the aircraft where ground crew walk up to
and under the airplane, then quickly retreat.

Third look just left of the nose gear. The brown square on the ground is a
metal plate embedded in the concrete, with an access cover in it. The lightning
strike exits the airplane onto the metal plate and sends the access cover flying
through the air toward the tug on the far left where it lands harmlessly between
the two vehicles.

Algeria's railways were built by the French in the colonial era which ended in 1962. Today the majority of the North African country's 3,973 route km system is in standard gauge 1435 mm, but there is still over a quarter of it in the strange gauge of 1055 mm (3 ft 5.5"), a half inch less than the common 3 ft 6 inches.

Dave Evans is not just any A380 captain - he’s the Check and
Training Captain of the A380 Airbus, and he just happened to be working
on the Qantas flagship plane Nancy Bird Walton in 2010 when the number two engine failed, sending debris at high velocity into random parts of the jet.

“It takes on its own life when these things happen,” Capt Evans said.

“Everything
just went into slow motion. Some things I couldn’t recall doing; you
just go into your responses - looking back at the flight information
what we did all worked out well.”

Easy to say - but the end result is the plane landed safely, with a reasonably calm cabin.

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All at Sea: stories of New Zealand seafarers

Narratives from interviews conducted over several years with 16 merchant navy sailors - 14 men and 2 women - who recounted their stories from the last full fledged sailing ship, the Pamir being returned to her home country of Finland after WWII to recent stories on today's inter-island ferries and coastal vessels, as well as international cargo and passenger ships which sailed to various parts of the globe. A full range of occupations are covered from Deck Boy, Engineer, Steward to Master as well as harbour pilots, union leaders and shipping company executives.

NZR Memorabilia

A fabulous new book containing many colourful illustrations of old postcards, pamphlets, posters, and a wide range of objects that have been used by the NZR and its personnel from the 1860s to the present time. Together they tell in visual form the importance of NZR to NZ and its people over the past 150 years and provides a useful reference for collectors.

Voyage to Gallipoli

Details of the troopships to the Gallipoli campaign of WW1 and more WW1 naval history.